WIN A SIGNED COPY OF MISS FORTUNE COOKIE PLUS GOODIES,
INCLUDING A $30 GIFT CARD

TO ENTER, write a response to one of the Dear Miss Fortune Cookie letters below:

Dear Miss Fortune Cookie,

My boyfriend and I have been together for one week. He’s amazing, and I don’t just mean his eyes and hair. He really listens to me. He gives me compliments. Now I wonder if it’s just an act! He brags to his friends after we make out. My friend showed me one of his texts! I want to kill him. But what if someone else sent the text to split us up? Lots of people are jealous of what we have.

Going crazy

Dear Miss Fortune Cookie,

My best friend and I share a locker. It’s kind of a pain because she is a total slob. If I throw out trash, she accuses me of losing her homework. Once she left half an Icee in there, and it spilled all over my social studies binder. I’d move out of the locker, but my friend just joined chorus. Now she has new friends that she can hang out with instead of me. What should I do?

Squeezed

Dear Miss Fortune Cookie,

I’m not short, but my girlfriend is taller than me. My friends laugh about it. They call me stumpy and pat me on the head. I don’t want to go to school anymore. Should I just break up with her already?

Taller Than Average

ALL THOSE WHO ENTER WILL RECEIVE A SIGNED BOOKMARK

Email your entry to lauren@laurenbjorkman.comYou can enter as many times as you wish.

I’m giving away a couple of 2010 novels generously donated by 2009 Debutantes: INDIGO BLUES by Danielle Joseph and SWOON AT YOUR OWN RISK by Sydney Salter. I can’t wait to read these beauties! They’re both at the top of my TBR pile. Indigo Blues will take you into the glamorous world of a hit songwriter and the girl who unwittingly inspired the song. Swoon follows the love life of a girl living with her advice columnist grandma.

When I read the flap copy for DONUT DAYS I was intrigued by the premise–a girl growing up with evangelical parents, and her push for some personal freedom. Then I read the book. Wow! Zielin tackles the subject matter with fresh wit and a light touch. The pages turned themselves, and by the end, I loved every character.

Even before FLASH BURNOUT by L.K. Madigan before it won the William C. Morris Award, I knew it was a winner. For one, the main character hooked my right away. Blake has the attitude of a teen boy, but not in a distracting or annoying way. He’s funny, imperfect, occasionally rough around the edges, and lovable from start to finish. And I appreciated that the story had depth–a look at how Blake’s best friend deals with her mom’s drug addiction and homeless–without getting overly dark. It made me laugh and cry, which is my favorite kind of read.

Here is a gem that may have slipped under your radar–HAVEN by Beverly Patt. It’s the story of a boy who wants a thing badly, and the girl who bribes him to help her run away. Patt tells the tale masterfully. She makes you laugh and ache inside at the same time. By the end of her novel, I wanted to pack up these characters and take them home with me.